CE Gives 'ambush' Yau Ma Tei Lockdown The Thumbs Up

Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Wednesday said she was thrilled that an overnight lockdown of two streets in Yau Ma Tei, to identify Covid-19 carriers, had achieved the goals of "being confidential", "focusing on an area", and "compressing the lockdown time".

She said these objectives were set after authorities wrapped up the city's first lockdown in Yau Ma Tei and Jordan over the weekend.

Tuesday night's operation was much smaller in scale than the weekend lockdown, details of which were leaked before it took effect.

On her Facebook page, Lam said authorities had adopted "parallel testing" – using both rapid antigen tests as well as nose and throat swabs – to speed up the identification of coronavirus carriers.

She stressed that authorities are not taking any potential sources of infection lightly.

"I thank residents in the restricted area for their cooperation,” she wrote. “I must give the thumbs up for 380 colleagues from Home Affairs Department, the District Offices in Yau Tsim Mong and Sham Shui Po, as well as the Police force!"

Authorities managed to find one infection among 330 residents tested. The operation ended after 11 hours.

"The government's next goal would be how to better utilise the anti-epidemic tools and stay one step ahead of an outbreak to achieve zero infections in the community," Lam wrote.

She said the operation could put the minds of the residents at ease, and called on people to get tested as soon as possible whenever they are ordered to do so.